In the sermon titled 'The Love of God,' Robert Hartley discusses the widely known and often misunderstood biblical verse John 3:16. He emphasizes the importance of interpreting scripture correctly, warning that misinterpretation can lead to distorted doctrines about God's nature, human worth, and salvation. Hartley argues that God's love is not based on human worth but rather on God's sovereign will, and he challenges the notion that God loves everyone equally. The speaker underscores the necessity of understanding the context of John 3:16, noting that it should be seen as part of a broader scriptural narrative. He explores God's love as being specific to His elect and highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation, contrasting this with the belief in salvation through free will. Hartley also addresses the idea that faith and eternal life are gifts from God, not earned by human actions. The sermon concludes by affirming that a correct understanding of John 3:16 reveals the glory of God's plan for salvation.

You know, it's something about an old saying that, say the best for last, well that's not true today. You're not getting the best. But you are getting one thing, you're getting the oldest. You're getting the oldest. So turn with me if you would to John chapter 3.

I'll get to talking in a minute then I probably can't stop. John chapter 3 our text is verse 16, the love of God. One verse, one verse and we look at this first probably in familiar arity it's probably one of the most familiar verses in the Bible, along with Matthew 7.1 where, judge not that you be not judged. You could ask people walking down the street to give quote a Bible verse to you and they probably gonna give you one of those. So it's a pretty well-known fact or this is a well-known verse.

It's a household verse. It's a verse I learned in Sunday school quite a few years ago. Learn how to quote this verse. But the problem I've had for many years or did have for many years is probably some of you did is understanding this verse. This one little verse is probably one of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible.

I think it's not just misunderstood, it is greatly misunderstood. And so when we look at the Bible, we begin to study the Bible and we read verses and we interpret those verses wrong, we're in trouble. There's consequences from that. So before we really get into this verse today I want to give us some consequences of interpreting scripture incorrectly. If we interpret scripture incorrectly we're going to have a distorted doctrine of man.

We may think that God loves us all so much because we are so lovable. Remember, we're speaking about the love of God. And I will say this before I go any further the love of God is way over my head I can't understand it all I definitely can't understand why he loves me but he does but some people just have the idea that they are so lovable God just loves them. We may think sometimes people think that the main point of this verse is it's showing what we're really worth. We're not worth anything, you know.

But the point is, it's not our worth. It's not our worth to God, but his worth to us, to us. You know, sometimes we think that we as law centers, or as were law centers, that Christ just couldn't save us. It was just too much. Too much for him to save sinners like us.

And then when we get to thinking about ourselves as being so good, you know, we're just so good, God just loves us because of what I do. We try to take away the glory that he deserves because it's all about him. There's no glory to come to us, all glory is to come to Christ and we have to remember that. Another thing we don't understand this verse we don't have a distorted doctrine of God we're not going to understand who God is. To understand who God is we have to understand God's love.

We need to understand God's love. You know people some people I think that God's that they think that God sent his son to die for them because he needed them and he couldn't bear to be without them. You know people think that he can't live without them. They might get to thinking that he won't send anyone to hell. Yes God is a God of love, but he's also a God of wrath.

And when people begin to think that they're just so good that he just won't do that. They're looking at this verse wrong. It's wrong. We might even begin to think that God was uncertain who would believe in him, that he sent Christ and hoped that people would believe in him. But what kind of thinking is this?

You know, well that kind of thinking strips God of his divine nature, characterizing him as a wishful deity, that he's just sitting on the edge of his throne waiting to see whether or not its plans are going to succeed. You say well people I don't think that well you may not But there's a lot of people thinking about God as this way. That he's just so lovable. That he's not going to send me to hell. I just do so much good that he won't send me to hell.

Well I'm just go ahead and say this before we go any further. That's not the God of the Bible. He is who he says he is. If we don't understand this verse correctly, we're not going to understand the doctrine of faith. We may think that because we believe in a few spiritual things, that we believe a few of the facts that the Bible teaches us about Christ, you know, deceive ourselves about the condition of our souls.

We may think that faith is our gift to God, or rather God's gift to us. We may even think that we are saved by our free will rather than by his sovereign will. Y'all know as well as I do that so many people, the majority of people believe that their salvation is totally left up to them. They can accept him or they can deny him. And people that think like that, they trust in themselves instead of trusting in Christ.

And then again the wrong interpretation of John 3.16 will cause us to have a distorted doctrine of eternal life. A lot of people don't understand about eternal life. I don't understand it all. I won't stand here and claim that I do. But I do know this.

You know, it's not going to be a life that we just have endless pleasures that we are going to be able to continue doing what we want to do. You see people living in this world, living out of the world, they do what they want to do. They do it when they want to do it, they do it how they want to do it. But we as Christians, we see things a little bit different. But even as us as Christians, do we understand what this verse is teaching us?

Do we really? But before we get into what this text means we need to keep several things in mind. The one item at John 3 16 is just one verse in the entire Bible. It's not a chapter, it's not a book. It's just one verse.

And that one verse by itself is not capable of teaching us the broad scope of the doctrine of this Bible. Not that one verse is not. This verse says part of a chapter which is part of the gospel of John which is part of the Bible and it should be interpreted in light of the overall context. You know Christ never never set John 3 16 apart as a verse above all verses. He never did that.

John 3 16 is no more inspired than any other verse in the Bible. All of God's Word is inspired by God. It is his word. But we can't pull out verses like this and use them to our own benefit. We can't just pull out verses like this and say it means this without knowing what else is taught about the same thing and we want to see some of that today.

So to understand this first we have to look at the context. We can go back and start again of John 3, chapter 3 there. Instead of assuming that believers in Christ is a free will choice, we have to examine what these verses teach us. And we have to see what we find in John 3 1 through 8. We see there is a teaching on the rebirth which refutes that assumption about our own free will.

We see there Nicodemus a Pharisee had come to Jesus by night and acknowledged that he talking about Jesus had come from God. In verse 3 and 5 he says Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except that man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily I say unto thee, except the man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

So we see Nicodemus didn't understand Jesus and thought he would refer to a physical childbirth. Then in verses six through eight we see what Jesus replied to him and said, he said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit of spirit Marvel not that I said unto thee you must be born again or literally really born from above says the wind bloweth where it listed and thou hearst the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whether it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit. So in other words what Jesus telling Nicodemus said that the rebirth being born again is that of the Spirit's will not the human will. We're not in control of salvation, God is. In teaching like this it takes away all the confidence man has to trust in free will.

Trusting in free will, even the sinner's prayer, and the good works. Jesus' question in Nicodemus in verse 10 could be asked a preacher's day where he says are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things. You know we shouldn't be surprised that a lot of preachers don't understand the basis of the gospel. We see it here and there where we go. Everything that we listen to, they don't understand.

They don't understand that salvation is by the will of God, not the will of man. We can see that these verses leading up to John 3.16 teach something different from the assumption that's usually made on this verse. Then as we look backward in the gospel of John we say a similar truth in John 1, 12, and 13. He says there, but as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name which were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God. You know we often think that receiving Christ is an act of our will which results in our new birth But here in verse 13 John refutes that idea.

Here he's telling us that our birth, that is our rebirth, is not a blood. It's not of lineage, you could say that. It's not because of who our parents was, it wasn't because of this or that, it's because of him. It wasn't because of us, it wasn't because of our lineage, nor the will of the flesh, which is our own will, nor the will of man, that could be the will of someone else, but of God. It's God that brings about the rebirth, not our will.

And this is what Jesus was teaching Nicodemus. We must be born again by the Spirit of God. He told him the Spirit blows where he pleases. We can't control him. We can't make him save anyone.

We can't predict where he's going to move the next time. We can't predict who he's gonna save next. We can't tell him to save our lost loved one. The Spirit of God moves where and when that he decide? Not us.

Not us. So all this can't be ignored when we begin to look at John 3 and 16. We shouldn't interpret John in 316 in a way that contradicts what has already been taught in the verses we've just read. And the same truth is taught in John 6 and 44. Jesus said no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

Here Jesus is teaching that men don't even, they don't have the, We don't have the ability to come to him unless the Father is drawing us. And that's through the working of the Holy Spirit. You know, we know, we've heard, we should understand that dead men can't do nothing. Can't do anything. You know, think about that and I think about when Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb.

He said, Lazarus come forth. He called his name. And what did Lazarus do? He came forth. He had to hear Jesus call him.

If he hadn't heard that, he'd still been there. And so it is with us today. If God's Spirit don't call us and draw us to him, we will never come. Because we're dead. Lost man is dead and his trespass is in sin and he cannot come.

He cannot come. So we can see that the context of our verse today has to shape our interpretation of what this verse is saying. We can't ignore what all these other passages say. A lot of people do. It's wrong.

You know, We can't interpret this verse without first being able to understand what these other verses said. Then we can look a little bit further there in this chapter and we see that Jesus makes reference in verses 14 and 15 there to Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness. It says in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up so that all those believing in him should have eternal life. This context helps us understand the meaning of believing. The Israelites, the ones that were bitten by the serpent, because they're there grumbling and complaining against God, they believed that meant that they had to look up to the bronze serpent, trusting in God for their salvation from death.

And that's the analogy that Jesus was used to introduce the subject of believing in John 3 and 15 and 16. We can see that faith is a look into the crucified Christ. Trusting that he alone is the God appointed provision for our salvation. It is looking to Christ alone trusting his death as the only acceptable sacrifice for our sins. Now with all that being said we begin to look at this verse.

Let's break it down and see what it says. Hopefully, with God's help, we can understand what Jesus is saying here in Nicodemus and to us with his help. So let's start as the verse started. Let's talk about God's love, the love of God. And I'm sure that we've all heard questions asked about God's love.

So maybe we can answer some of those questions today. Questions like, when did God start loving us? How do we receive this love? Who does God love? How does he show this love?

What did God's love cost him? Why does God love us? And I could go on and on. But these and many more questions could be asked. Let's start over in Romans 8 chapter.

You want to follow along if you don't want to just read what it says. Romans 8 verses 35 through 39. Read these verses to bring out one point because we don't have time to deposit all these verses. There we see the apostle Paul says, beginning in verse 35, who shall separate in room look at these little words the little words who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or pearl or sword. As is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.

We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor power nor things present nor things to come nor height nor death or any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So that little word, the word us in verse 39 means God's people. So we read of the love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And I'll throw this into there is no love outside of Christ. That's where all of God's love to us comes from. It comes to us through Christ. We need to remember that. Remember there's no love of God outside of Christ.

And if I read a verse or two, a quote of verse or two that's been already used today, then it was meant to be. Psalm 145 and 9 says, The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. Luke 6 35 he is kind unto the thankful and to the evil. Matthew 5 45 heard this today he make it his son to rise on the evil and on the good and send his reign on the just and on the unjust. We see that the Lord is good to all.

And I'm not standing here before you today and telling you that God is not good to all. But what I'm trying to tell you today is God loves his people and he has set his people for the blessings. We're the one to receive the blessings. So the Lord is good to all, but his love is reserved to his elect. And I'm talking about his redemptive love.

We'll get a little bit more about this other. We heard a little bit about this morning. We go a little bit further with it in just a few minutes. His God's love, his redemptive love, is reserved for his elect. And the word world in John 3.16 is used there in a general term, used in contrast with the Jews, and it must be interpreted in a way that it does not contradict John 3.36.

John 3.36 says this, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life but whoever rejects the Son will not see life or God's wrath remains on him. Since God loves his people in Christ, we can understand that we, you know, we didn't do nothing during that love. I hope we can understand that. He loves us. He loves us in Christ, not because of who we are, what we have done, what we're going to do.

No, he loves us in Christ. He chose us before the foundation of the world and he loves us in Christ. And since God loves his people in Christ, his love does not change. Because he loves us in Christ, our Father loves us as Christ. What a blessing.

What a blessing. You know the time will come when Christ's Prayer of John 17 and 23 it will be answered And that is where Jesus said that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. You know God's love for us, it just didn't start. They want the finger snapped. And God started loving us.

No. But when did he start loving us? He loved us in an eternity past. It started in an eternity. If you can figure out that time, tell me because I can't.

God's always loved his elect, always. Jeremiah 31, 3 says I have loved you with an everlasting love And I really like to have time to really exposit that verse and really tell you what it means, but I'm glad I'm life because I might go with five or ten minutes and you have to go, you just have to go. I respect the 45 minute limit, but I respect God's word too and I pray that I'll be through. But he said there, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Now to my ears, and I'm just a dumb old country redneck boy, but to my ears something everlasting, it don't change, it don't go away.

Always. I can't do nothing to make God quit loving me You can't do nothing that will make God quit loving you. He loves us without everlasting love. We might get a little bit more of that in if we have time. First John 4 and verse 10 says, Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the perpetuation for our sins our sin our sin it is called God loves us in Christ and always had at his gifts.

They never change. God don't give us something and take it away from us. God is not like that. The love of God makes a change in our hearts, but it don't change him. God don't change.

Even when he chases us, he is in love. Guess what? It's for our good too. It is for our good. Remember this too, he chastens whom he loves.

Hebrews 12 and 6. That's just not out there. God chastens who he loves. He blesses all people. He gives all people a lot of blessings, but he loves his people.

But he loves his people. Okay. Hope we see that more. That brings us to the question. How does God show his love to us?

Well, that's a 24-hour message. I'll just give you two or three things. How about an election? An election is a consequence of his love. In Ephesians 1, 4 through 5, he had chosen us and him for the foundation of the world, having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself.

And why did he do it? According to the good pleasure of his will. We think about redemption moving on hurriedly. Out of his sovereign love, God made provision of Christ. Christ satisfied the wrath of God.

He made provision for that for our sins. Romans 8 32, share this verse with you, He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" It's hard to read verses without seeing that us in it. He gives us all things. It's us, it's people. Here again, it's clear proof that his son wasn't levered up to the cross for all mankind.

He didn't die for everybody. Now I hope that's not shocking to you, but he did. If he'd have died for everybody, what would have happened? Yeah, everybody would have been saved. They're not.

He don't give everybody his Holy Spirit. He don't give everybody a new nature. He don't give everybody repentance and faith, but he gives that to us, his chosen, his elect. Then another way that God shows His love to us is, how about our effectual call? That call comes, it is effectual too.

Having loved His elect with an everlasting love, therefore with love and kindness, He does draw them. He quickens us into newness of life. He calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light. He makes us his children. 1st John 3 and 1 says, Behold what manner of the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.

Therefore the world, here's the word world again, knoweth us not because it, talking about the world, knew him not. Solomon said this, and we know Solomon was a wise man. He said many waters cannot quench love, nor can floods drown it. I say such is God's love to his people. The love of God is so great that he gave his only begotten son that all who would believe in him would and not might have eternal life.

So this should bring us to what the true meaning of John 3 16 really is but as with any verse of the Bible clear interpretation is came by examine the definition of the words issues there by comparing the things in the text here with the same things told elsewhere and we looked at a little bit of that then we have to look carefully at the grammar and the context we cannot completely define the word love apart from the word world We won't fully know what it means that God loved without first understanding what is meant by world Which is the object of God's love in our tapes? We cannot understand the phrase for God so loved the world without first examine the context and then examine the uses of love and world and other scriptures and we have looked at that. And as I said we've already looked at that according to context but I want to look a little bit further and the reason is because the scriptures they reflect the mind of God. We see them, they reflect his mind And since God is the author of all scripture, what is said in one place won't be contradicted in another place.

If we read a passage here and it says this and we go here and read a passage and we think it's talking about the same thing is see it all together different we better go back and start looking because God he's the author of it all and he didn't put things in his word contradictory and that's one thing that we need to remember and when people pull John 3 16 out of context and start telling you to God loved everybody in the world and he wouldn't send nobody to hell because he's loving all this, you either got to get them to hush and sit down and listen to the truth or either you just turn out to have fear of what they say. That's what you'll run into. So we see that this verse, John 3.16, where God so loved the world cannot contradict other passion scripture that address the same subject matter. So we've talked a good bit about the love of God but what does it mean for God to love the world? His love of feeling that God has for the world and just the feeling that he has.

Does it mean that he loves everybody no matter what? Does it mean that because he loves everybody that he'll give everybody everything that they need everything that they want does it mean because of his love for the world that nothing bad is going to ever happen to us. Because God loves the world, does that mean he won't send anybody to hell? And that brings up a thought. You know, God's love is everlasting.

Does God love the people that die and go to hell? Does he? If he ever loved him, he does. Because his love don't change, it's everlasting. But we got people to say that God loves and he won't send anybody to hell and God's Word says different.

Says different. But what the problem is people try to define what the word love means instead of letting God's Word define this word and God's Word has to do that. It has to define Scripture, not us. Scripture must define what love means in this verse and every other passage. In John 3.16 the word for love is agape and we know what that word means.

It means brother love, affection, goodwill, benevolence and that's the highest form of love that we know about. Matter of fact is the word that Jesus used in John 17 23 through 26 to describe the Father's love for the Son for the foundation of the world. The people today they read John 3 16 and think how wonderful they must be who have secured God's affection. Man, I'm doing all right. I'm a good boy.

I'm a good girl. God loves me. Okay? What they need to do, and us too, is to reflect on how wonderful Christ is. He is that one gift.

He is the one gift that the Father chose to give as an expression of that love. The one give. And to properly understand John 3 16 we have to deal with a very unpopular belief. God does not love everyone at least and let me say this before I go any further. God don't love everyone like he loves his elect, okay?

Let me put it that way. At least he don't love them with redemptive love. And I might read a verse or two that you've heard today that I think would back this up. Matter of fact the verses I'm going to read to talk about God hate like some Psalms 5, 6 where he says you hate all who do iniquity and there it didn't say he hated iniquity it said he hates all who does iniquity the lord abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit Psalm 11 5 the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. And just throw this into when somebody tells me exactly what they think the word world means in this verse.

I want to explain to me what hate means in these verses that we're looking at today. Then goes on Proverbs 6, 16, a very familiar verse to us. Of course there are six things which the Lord hates and I started not to write them down but I think it might help us to see a little bit better. The six things that there are six things which the Lord hates. Yes seven which are an abomination to him.

It's haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood. A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and the one spread strife among brethren." And I really believe that this verse is talking about people. So he says he hates people that does that. Jeremiah 12, eight says, I have come to hate her. Hosea 9, 15, I came to hate them there.

And you've heard this verse today and I'm not going to dispute with the brother about it. I agree with him 100 percent. I read this verse and tell you what, tell you my thought. On the 9, 13 it just says, written Jacob had a love but he saw I hated. We know the verses like these are unpopular But they are true.

Usually people don't memorize them, but they, as I said earlier, they're just as inspired as John 3.16 is. Something else God does not say is that he hates the sin, but loves the sinner. God hates the sin and the sinner. Yes, as we've already said, and we've seen it in Matthew and we've seen it in other verses. God does provide for all of his creation.

He does send rain on the just and the unjust. The sun does come up on the just and the unjust. Providentially he does provide, but that is not redemptive love. He does take care of his people. He takes care of his elect.

He takes care of the lost and I'm not disputing that but what I am saying is and I'll continue to say this as long as Lord give me breath to say it, God does not love everybody in this world. He loves his redemptive people, the ones he chose and ones he redeems, his elect is who God loves and he has always loved them and he always will. And I am proud to be in that number. There was a time in my life that I was like Esau was. The Lord took care of me.

I've been in many places and I don't have time to tell you, I've been in many places. God was there taking care of me. And I know that God did. But he didn't love me like he loves me now. So we'll just let that rest.

Don't have time to go any further. But all verses like this, people don't know them. And the reason they don't know them is because they're Biblical or literate or willfully ignorant. It's not because these verses are not important. There's something else that I like to make as clear as I can.

God has not changed. God has not changed. We can go back over in the Old Testament we can see time and time again where God fought Israel's battles. Sometimes they he would tell them to go out he says you kill every man woman and child and the beast all the animals you kill them all. Tell me how much God loved them.

God had changed from the Old Testament now as he said in Malachi 3 and 6 for I the Lord do not change. I want to hear is that God is perfect. He's always been perfect. You don't need to change. He does not change because you don't need to change.

Senators are the ones who need to change. I'll say again, God hated the wicked in the Old Testament hates them today but there's a difference and we need to see this talk about God hating the wicked by the way his hatred is a perfect hatred the God is perfect we can't hate like God does we can't love like God You know the majority of people they say that the Bible says that God loves everyone. Hear it everywhere you go, God loves everybody. I say show me that verse that God says love everybody and they're gonna jump well look at John 3 16 again they don't understand the verse say from again this first cannot be taken out of its context and understood apart from the rest of the teachings of the Bible If there are verses that God hates the wicked, we have to allow these verses to shape our understanding of John 3 and 16. We don't have the right to annoy them simply because we don't like them or because they mess up our traditions that we've been taught by our forefathers.

Time to stand up and be a man. It's time to stand up for God's Word. Accept the truths of God's Word. And we have people who object and say, but God is love. I say amen.

God is love. What's the problem? But again we have to look at the scripture because the fact that God is love necessarily mean that God loves everybody. I know I'm just about out of time. Think about the devil for a minute.

The devil is a sinner, but God loved the devil. God hates the devil. Is it inconsistent for him to hate the children of the devil? You know, don't have time, but you go and read John 8, 38 through 47, where Jesus tells the Jews there that their father is the devil. They and the world too.

He tells them their father is the devil. Then people say it's wrong for God to hate anyone. I ask the question is who has the right to determine what God does? He's the one determines what's right or wrong. If God's Word says that God hates the wicked, we can safely conclude that is right and good for, you know, that is right and good.

He hates them. But now let us look at the word world. It's often assumed that world in John 3 16 refers to every single person in the world but does it? You know sometime it refers to this planet. Scripture talks about the foundation of the world.

Sometimes it refers to the world of believers too. In other cases the word world refers specifically to the world of unbelievers as in John 7 where he said the world cannot hate you but it hates me because I testify that it days are evil so obviously believers love Christ but they are not included in the word world there world of people that hate Christ You can go to other scriptures too, we don't have time for that. The other scriptures, John 14, 17, 12, 31, they say the same thing. Sometimes world simply means a multitude of people. We can see this in John 12 and 19.

So the Pharisees paraphrased it here. The Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are not doing any good, look the world has gone after him. So here the word world cannot mean every single person in the world. Since the vast majority of people in the world were not living in Israel and were not following Christ. And add to that the Pharisees wasn't even following Christ either, so it couldn't mean every person in the world.

First John 4, 9, and 10. By this the love of God will manifest in us that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. And this is love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the situation for our sins. This passage there is parallel to John 3 and 16. Here John tells us how God has shown his love and he did that by sending his only begotten son.

There are a lot of similarities between these passage but there are some different expressions some things to mention here it's not mentioned in John 3 16. Here John is clearly speaking about believers. This epistle in all epistles is written to believers. Pronouns us and we refer to believers, not unbelievers. John speaks of the love of God being manifested in us.

Who is the love of God manifest in? It's revealed to us, us believers. In verse 10 we see that God loved us. Word world is not used here as the object of God's love but rather us. So if we compare John 3 16 with 1 John 4 9 and 10 we see that God loves the world and the former and God loves us and the latter.

And seeing that these passages are parallel and knowing that they do not contradict one another, we have to conclude that John 3 16 is teaching the same thing as these verses here in 1 John 4. Namely that God loves believers and that's us. He loves believers in the world. Now my time's done gone but we'll finish up here. A couple of statements.

John 3 16 does not teach that God loves every person in the world with redemptive love. It teaches that he loved all those believing in him scattered throughout the world. He did not merely love believing Jews, he loved believing Gentiles as well. And John 3 16 does not teach that God is uncertain about who will be saved. The word whoever is not found in the original Greek and is a misleading translation of the great word PAS, meaning all.

God knows exactly what will happen for it happens because God works out all things after the counsel of his own will. He knows what will happen not merely because he foresees it but because he foreordained it to happen. John 3 16 is a glorious verse when understood properly. For the glory of God shines through it. May God use his first to shine in your heart the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Amen.